Edge of Awareness
by She's So High
Summary: Welcome to Jump City where the students of San Paulo High aren't your average teens, every citizen has a secret, and the new girl in town has a dark destiny that will change her life and the lives of everyone she comes into contact with.
1. Red Letter Days

Edge of Awareness

By: Lady DeathAngel

Disclaimer: not mine, not profiting, 'nuff said.

Pairings: Robin/Starfire, Speedy/Kid Flash, Beast Boy/Terra, eventual Robin/Raven

Warnings: slash, language, sexual content, AU

A/N: I'm so excited to finally be posting this story! Firstly, thanks so much to the most awesome beta reader an author could ask for (and the best I've ever had) **Neoinean**!Icouldn't have posted this without her.Please, everyone, note the warnings and the fact that this story will contain slash. It is also a Robin/Raven story, though they won't get together for quite a while. This story will contain sexual contentlater on, but I'll be sure to make the warnings more specific when that happens. Also, this story is a hybrid of comic andcartoon canon and I'm anxious to see how it's received.I'll be postingchapters once a week for at least the next five weeks, probably every Friday. So keep your eyes posted and, please, read,enjoy, and review!

**Red Letter Days**

On September 21st, Arella Roth was gunned down just outside of her home. The story was all over the news in her small hometown, but not because anyone actually cared about her. Arella was commonly construed as odd and the rumor was that she was involved in a cult. Some even thought that she'd dedicated her soul and her daughter to Satan, though even the most dedicated of gossip-mongers weren't too sure how true _that_ was. Still, talk of Arella was never positive and anyone who had dealings with her would often rush to the town's cathedral to be blessed by Father Tom. Rather, the story was huge, not because of the victim, but because of the boy who killed her. He was one of those "troubled" teens, the kind that wore black and painted their nails and hid evil intent behind curtains of dyed hair. He was arrested five hours later with blood splattering his shirt and a grim smile on his face.

"Just so long as it gets me the fuck away from my dad," he said triumphantly.

For weeks men and women walked the streets and shook their heads, whispering about the Troubled Boy and the Dead Woman and asking the inevitable question of 'Why God, Why?' They ignored the fact that after the woman was tucked as neatly as possible into a body bag and the boy was safely settled in a juvenile detention center, the nightmare was far from over. They ignored this fact because, for them, it _was_ over. They could go on with life, harboring the dark secret of their sleepy town in their collective bosom, bringing it out at picnics and family reunions.

_Remember the time that kid went nuts and killed the Roth woman?_

_She was an odd one anyway, and you know how troubled he was._

_It was only a matter of time._

It would make for a good conversation starter when the air was dead and awkward and after a while it would become legend. It wouldn't be real anymore.

But for Arella's daughter, it would always be real. Painfully so.

Rachel Roth was another of those who could be typecast as the Troubled Teen. She wasn't even called 'Rachel,', the name too normal-sounding to have fit her anyway. Her strange, cult-driven mother called her 'Raven' instead and everyone else followed suit. Raven wore black and dark purple, was much too pale for a town only an hour away from the sea, painted her nails macabre colors, read too often for a girl her age, and didn't talk much. When she did it was often to say something sarcastic in big words that nobody understood. Everyone assumed she was troubled . . . if they bothered to assume anything about her at all.

When Arella died, no one paid much attention to her daughter. Raven just sort of disappeared from their regaled tales all together after a few years. Initially, according to the papers, she found her mother's body and snapped. Just went crazy and screamed and screamed and screamed until the police carted her away for an official questioning. There was a story going around for a while about how when the police accused her of killing her own mother she cursed at them and a few coffee pots and florescent lights in the building burst.

It took the custodians days to get all the glass cleaned up.

She was at the funeral, along with most of the town. Again, they weren't there because they cared. Rumor had it that Arella had been so grievously injured, the casket was going to be closed. They were disappointed to see her pointed features smoothed in death, the casket quite obviously open, their collective morbid curiosity dissatisfied by the altogether normal service.

If anyone cared to pay attention to Raven's situation after that, and only the most bored of housewives and old ladies did, they would note that the teen spent much of the next two weeks in meetings with strange men and women from out of town. Apparently she only had one living relative, a father that everyone had been told was dead. There was a distant aunt who lived in Europe, but she didn't want Raven and Raven didn't want her. Besides, Raven's father was Trent Ryder. Everyone knew he was one of the richest men in Jump City.

After plenty of signed papers the men and women left. Raven's story was too boring for even the most bored of people at that point, and the newest gossip revolved around Tracey Lourdes and the affair she may or may not have been having with the foreign exchange student Ignacio.

Without the eyes of the town on her, Raven packed up everything she thought had importance and settled on the steps of her small home one Sunday afternoon. Her gaze remained trained on a particularly boring spot of the road, the asphalt as standard as that of the expanse off to the right and that off to the left. There was nothing extraordinary about it to the casual passerby, but Raven was seeing a puddle of blood up the first knuckle of her pinky. Not that anyone could tell. Any neighbors that peered out of their windows assumed this was what all troubled teens did, staring at pavement in abject horror for hours on end.

The last anyone ever cared to hear about Rachel Raven Roth was that she made the decision to move in with her father. Not that anyone cared about her. They really only cared that her father was _the_ Trent Ryder and that he had arrived on that Sunday afternoon in a huge, shiny, black SUV looking far too rich for such a small town.

Several people escaped the humdrum air of their homes to gawk as Trent strolled up to Raven, looking sexy and sleek, just like his car. Raven didn't look excited and a classmate whispered to her smitten mother, "Gawd, what is her _problem_? I'd be, like, so excited if he was _my_ dad." Her mother just sighed as Trent lifted one of Raven's huge suitcases as if it were a stuffed animal, saying: "me too."

After a few minutes of packing away suitcases, Raven climbed into the passenger seat. Trent jogged around to the driver's side and offered a smile and a wave as he got into the vehicle. Seconds later he sped out of the neighborhood and out of their lives.


	2. So Lucky

Edge of Awareness  
By:Lady DeathAngel  
Disclaimer: not mine, not profiting, 'nuff said  
Warnings: language would be about it for this chapter  
A/N: urgh, so, just over a week into posting and I'm alreadya day late! Sorry for everyone who's reading this (and I know you're out there. I've seen the hit counter.) but I was over at my grandparents' house for two nights and couldn't get home to post. Anyway, here's this chapter, complete with lots of Raven. In the next chapter she meets Gar Logan (Beast Boy) and from there the story really gets rolling. Please tell me what you think! Reviews make me happy, happy. :)

So Lucky

Raven thought she was, quite possibly, the most _unlucky_ person ever. It was in the little things, like the fact that she'd moved to a seaside city and knew she would never manage to tan at _all_; it was in the big things, like the fact that she'd spent three minutes kneeling in her mother's blood trying to revive her before realizing Arella was dead. Now she would be living with a man she'd never seen in her life, a man she hadn't even known existed.

Raven was fervently wishing she was back to being a bastard. She didn't like her father very much.

He was charming enough. He'd smiled at her several times on the hour and a half long drive to his huge home. He'd told her how sorry he was for what had happened and that he hoped they would get along well. For an hour and a half she listened to his life story. He told her he was a self-made billionaire, that he hated animals and kids but regretted never meeting her before. He had a fiancee named Linda who Raven would 'love to pieces' because she was 'just great'. He spoke bitterly about her mother but Raven might have missed it if she'd been ignoring him. He told her to call him 'Trent' and he called her 'Rachel'.

By the time Raven met Linda, she wanted to shoot herself in the head. Linda was tall and blonde and tan and gorgeous. She smiled at Raven ten times as much as Trent did in the first five minutes of meeting her. She told Raven her life story. She was an English major, a teacher at a local highschool ("We can car-pool together. You'll _love_ my car, it's _so _cute."). She, unlike her significant other,_ loved_ animals and kids, had tons of friends and went to tons of parties ("But I always find time to grade my papers. I'm the _queen_ of multitasking."). She was madly in love with Trent, and was looking forward to having Raven around ("I haven't had a female roommate since _college_, can you _imagine_? It'll be so _nice_ to have another girl around."). She told Raven to call her whatever she wanted since they were going to be _such _good friends. She called Raven things like 'Honey' and 'Sweetie' and 'Baby' and 'Rach'.

Trent left to pick up food and Linda showed Raven around the house. The floor was standard fare: a dining room, kitchen, family room, bathroom, washroom, and rec room. The second and third floors belonged to Linda and Trent and were off-limits, but Raven was not to worry because her rooms were 'to die for.'

"Trent called a decorator the minute he heard you were coming," Linda said as she led Raven past the first floor family room and into the foyer of the house. "The entire _basement_ is yours."

There was a door adjacent to that of the coat closet that led to a set of steep, black carpeted stairs. They padded downward in the relative dark, their paths lit only by the strip of sunlight that drifted through the open door. After a minute Linda flipped a switch and they finally reached the bottom of the stairs. There were beads, Raven noted with a raised eyebrow. Not bad, she decided as she parted them with one hand. She looked at her very own den and smirked. Not bad at all.

"This is the den," Linda said with another huge smile. "Your own main room. The TV's huge," she continued, indicating a modern looking entertainment set. "Plasma. There's a DVD player, VCR, the best cable package on this coast complete with VOD and DVR. Tons of movies are in there too. We didn't know what you'd like, so we got a bit of everything. Your entertainment system's over there." She pointed to a far wall with a huge stereo sitting on top of a large glass case that would fit Raven's sizable CD collection comfortably. "The couches are very comfortable. We were told that they're quite popular with college students."

The love seat, sofa, chair, and ottoman were all blue and she wondered who had told these people about her favorite color. Linda took her to the bathroom and opened the door.

"This is your bathroom! The color scheme's a bit different in here, but I called in a friend and I think it's _wonderful_."

The room was huge, for a bathroom. There was a walk in shower off the left and a huge tub off to the right. The toilet was next to the walk-in shower, and next to that was a ledge that made an L shape until it became a counter and then the sink, which ran another segment of the wall before cornering into another L shape. All the taps looked modern, the counter and ledge tops a tan hue, the walls cream colored. The floor was decorated with many soft, fluffy, tan mats, the closet stocked with toiletries and towels and washcloths also in a tan color. There were plenty of candles and the overhead lights could be set low or high.

"It's nice," Raven murmured.

Not quite her style, but even she could appreciate a little decadence in her life.

Last was her bedroom. Linda said it was wonderful and opened the door with a flourish and a loud "ta-da!"

Raven liked it immediately. The bed was probably a twin and made of a mahogany wood that was dark without being freakishly so. It was high up (it needed freakin' _stairs_) and shrouded in a black, lacy canopy. The duvet was black satin as were the pillowcases and sheets. The walls were painted in a rich blue and were plain, but Raven had more than enough posters to fix that problem. There was a wardrobe across from the foot of her bed, a large closet, a desk that was perfect for her laptop, and a bookcase that she ached to fill. The lights in her room could also be set to her mood and she wondered, vaguely, if she could do the same in her main room. All in all, it was 'to die for'. The one bright spot in her otherwise shitty life.

"I like it," she finally told Linda.

The blonde smiled wide.

"_Great_!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I can help you unpack and move in!" she added as they made their way back upstairs.

Raven wanted to tell her not to push it, but couldn't figure out a polite way to do so. She'd always been a private person and wasn't sure how she felt about letting this complete stranger handle her stuff. Still, she didn't want to alienate her. The woman's bubbly personality was a stark and almost pleasant (if annoying) contrast to every other one she'd had to live with the last seventeen years. Especially her mother's. But she didn't want to think about that. She carefully put it out of her mind and helped Linda set the table, hoping she could remember what went where, subtle nuances that she'd have to adjust to in her new home.

By the time Trent had gotten home, Raven was almost in a not-so-bad mood. She was quiet and settled into her seat wearily, but the food smelled good and despite the fact her father was obviously a hedonist (if the modern furniture and 'bigger is better' attitude of the house were any indication) and her future step-mother was only a few years older than she was and called her 'Rach' she didn't feel _so_ unlucky anymore. They had Chinese takeout which was good and way more substantial than the macaroni and cheese that Raven had been living on for the last two weeks, too. Always a plus.

"So, you'll be starting school tomorrow," Trent informed her. "I've had all of your credits, vaccination records, birth certificate, and other appropriate papers transferred to San Paulo. It's the most prestigious private school in the area and their standards are high, but I'm sure you can handle it. "

Raven made a small, non-committal noise around a mouthful of Sesame Chicken.

"You can ride with Linda," her father continued. "She'll lead you to the front office and they'll have some papers for you to sign along with your class schedule. You'll be okay?"

Raven nodded again. Even if she wouldn't be 'okay' exactly, she'd survive. She hoped. After dinner she made her way back to the basement, Linda hot on her heels.

"I can unpack myself," Raven said over her shoulder. "You don't have to help."

"Oh, it's no problem, sweetie. I want to help."

Raven sighed and tugged on her earlobe, a nervous habit she'd picked up from her mother, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"I don't like other people touching my stuff," she said, turning to look at Linda.

Something flashed in the woman's eyes, but it was gone quickly and she smiled warmly.

"Well, if you're sure you can do it alone."

She turned and Raven bit her lip before calling out her name. Linda turned with raised eyebrows.

"I guess some company wouldn't be so bad," she said softly.

Linda grinned and parked herself on the couch while Raven set up her things. She kept up a conversation that was mostly one-sided about fun things to do in Jump City. She asked quite a few questions about Raven's life; Raven wasn't interested in answering anything personal, but she didn't mind talking about her old school or her old town.

"I'd love to see some pictures of your mom," Linda announced loudly, while Raven hung up t-shirts in her closet.

"I don't have any," Raven called back, her fingers clenching around the fabric of a tank-top. "We didn't take pictures."

It was a lie. Raven had exactly one photo album that she refused to look at. She had every intention of shoving it under her couch andforgetting it existed.

Raven finished unpacking and organizing her things around ten and Linda excused herself with a hug and an exuberant, "goodnight, hon!"

The door to the basement clicked shut and for several minutes Raven stared at it, her body still warm from the first hug she'd received since her mother had died. It took her a moment to realize that she was tearing up, the burning of her eyes and the sudden heavy knot at the back of her throat sure signs that if she couldn't control herself, she'd be up half the night, sobbing and wishing fervently for her mommy.

Clenching her fists and blinking the tears back, Raven went about getting ready for bed. She flicked off the light to the main room, went through a boring nightly routine, pulled on a big t-shirt, shucked off her jeans, and climbed into bed. She rolled onto her side and fingered the canopy for a few minutes, carefully not thinking about anything.

It took her hours of thinking about nothing before she finally fell into a fitful sleep.


	3. Intrigued

Edge of Awareness  
Lady DeathAngel  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Warnings: language  
A/N: So, here's chapter three. I've finally finished chapter six and will be sending that off to my lovely and wonderful beta, **Neoinean** today, which is happy news. Also, Beast Boy/Gar is finally introduced in this chapter! Exciting. So, please read, enjoy, and as always, review. I'd love to hear what you think so far.

**Intrigued**

San Paulo High School was a school famous for its star athletes, high test scores, and college turnout. At orientation they passed out huge, glossy folders full of numbers and percentages that impressed the right people, usually the rich ones. They had a credo, something about service to the community, to the school, to the city, and to the country. It was engraved on the gold plaque outside of Principal Selnar's office.

Raven didn't pay much attention to it. The principal, a tall, stately woman whose short hair was spiked and frosted gray, pointed it out to her. She told Raven (whom she referred to as Ms. Roth in a deep, authoritative tone) that she would, as a student at San Paulo High School, be expected to memorize the credo as well as the school song.

"We like to promote solidarity, especially during the coming months," Mrs. Selnar explained as they made their way to a wide desk in the front office. "The annual Homecoming Pep Rally is in three weeks time and you'll be expected to sing the school's fight song along with everyone else."

She informed Raven that San Paulo discouraged lack of school spirit. Raven thought that they were really discouraging individuality and the right to refuse to do something as stupid as sing a fight song. The looks that Selnar kept shooting her indicated she was well aware of Raven's thoughts, and a few comments about the fates of loners in San Paulo were obviously meant to intimidate her.

Raven wasn't easily intimidated. Besides, it was only for a few months and then she was gone. After she graduated she'd move somewhere else and never have to see Mrs. Selnar, or San Paulo's credo, ever again.

"As I'm sure Ms. Halliwell has informed you," Selnar said as Raven was handed a student handbook and several papers to sign. "Today's dress code is relaxed. The Student Government has sponsored a free dress day. Usually the dress code is only relaxed on Friday's. The rest of the week we wear uniforms. Girls are to wear crisp, white, button down blouses with either a plain black tie or one with black and red stripes. Blazers and sweaters are optional. Black slacks are permitted, but black pleated skirts no shorter than mid-thigh are preferred. Black socks are required and knee-high length is preferable, as are black shoes. Facial piercings, tattoos, and unconventional hair colors are not permitted. The ramifications of being out of dress code are detailed in the student handbook, along with what is considered appropriate attire for days on which the dress code is relaxed."

Raven frowned at the thought of pleated skirts and ties and blazers. She balked at the thought of having to shop for and wear a uniform at all. She finished signing random pieces of paper thrust at her and stuffed the student handbook into her messenger bag. Mrs. Selnar nodded at her and handed her two more sheets of paper.

"One of those has your locker number and combination," she said. "The other has your course schedule and on the back you will find our common bell schedules. Today is a regular start which means all classes commence at precisely eight o'clock. Now, any questions Ms. Roth?"

Raven glanced down at her schedule and shook her head.

"Excellent. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got work to do."

Selnar swept back into her office, closed her door, and left Raven standing in the school's main office feeling mutinous. With a deep frown she stalked out of the room and into hallways that were filling steadily with students.

San Paulo was a far cry from every other school Raven had ever been to. Small town schools were never very big, but San Paulo was smaller than any school she'd ever attended. According to some figures Selnar had thrown out, there were only four hundred and eighty students in attendance. They were all the best of the best (or the richest of the rich) and Raven was sure that with that kind of supercilious attitude running the school, she was a long way from ignorant dreamers and well into it with intelligent elitists.

Not that they made it easy to tell they were snobs. From the way the girls were dressed you would think San Paulo was famous for the number of students who went on to star in bad porno flicks rather than the number that went on to college. The boys were dressed in the standard jean-and-t-shirt fare with a few variations on the theme. The girls were a completely different story. For the longest time Raven had blended into the crowd with her hooded sweatshirts, faded jeans, and baggy cargo pants.

Here, she stood out.

Every corner she turned on the way to her locker led to another corridor full of tanned girls wearing as little as possible. They preened and checked each others' makeup, tugged their shirts until they were lined up _just so_ beneath their boobs, adjusted skirts that were too short to be legal, or squirmed in capris and jeans that looked too tight to allow proper breathing. Raven's own pants were loose and hung off of her waist, and her hoodie was a little short. The only skin she ever showed, face and hands aside, was a small strip just below her bellybutton and that was only because she had owned the hoodie since she'd been in the seventh grade. There was a certain amount of sentimental value that was automatically attached to something you'd had that long.

Still, she tugged it down self-consciously and wondered what had happened to Selnar's strict enforcement of the dress code. If anything, the only rule seemed to be that there were no rules. She'd have to flip through her student handbook. Maybe it was somewhere between 'too much skin is never enough' and 'all articles of clothing must be at least two sizes too small.'

The senior corridor was empty by the time Raven got to it, for which she was grateful. She was tired of being on the receiving end of dirty looks. No matter how much she expected them and no matter how little they bothered her on a personal level, it was too early in the morning for Raven to be patient and all she wanted was to be back in Kingsland with Arella, curled up under a mountain of blankets with a book.

"I didn't think it would be this hard," Raven whispered to herself as she halted in front of her locker.

With a soft groan she took hold of the lock and spun the combination. She didn't foresee visiting her locker that often. She'd always been more inclined to stuff as much into her bag as it could take without splitting and going to her locker only for emergencies. She just didn't have the time to waste on them. She tossed a few things in anyway, stuff that she didn't particularly need but that she might want at some point; a few books lined on the shelf, extra notebooks and pens at the bottom of the locker, and a mirror that Linda had given her with a convenient magnet for the inside of the door.

"Dude, aren't you hot in that?" a voice asked from behind her.

Raven whirled around only to find herself face to face with a . . . green boy. He wasn't very tall. In fact, he was no taller than Raven herself, and she wasn't tall at all. Not that he seemed daunted by his lack of height. Then again, if Raven had green skin, she probably wouldn't care about much else either. His hair was a deep shade of black and cut short in a way that exaggerated his angular jaw, his eyes were dark, and he had the look of someone who was quick with a grin and a laugh. She lifted an eyebrow and tentatively pushed the hood from her head.

"Excuse me?"

He smirked at her.

"You're wearing a _sweatshirt_ in _September_," he said, as if that explained everything.

She glanced off to the side and then back at him.

"Yeah? So?"

He chuckled.

"No need to get defensive. It's just that usually free dress days are a girl's excuse to dress like a slut and you're . . . not."

Raven nodded slowly and turned to close her locker, throwing 'go away now' vibes in his direction with all her might. When she turned back around, it was obvious that he hadn't gotten the point. The boy was still there, staring intently at her with a small smile on his face. Finally he extended his hand.

"I'm Garfield Logan, but nobody calls me by my full name."

Raven sighed and took his hand in hers, shaking it briefly.

"So what do I call you then?" she asked, partly to be polite but mostly because no one had ever stuck around this long when she was trying her best to look creepy and not-very-friendly-at-all.

He shrugged and linked his hands behind his head, stretching his white t-shirt across a surprisingly lean and muscled chest.

"Well, there's the ever-popular _Freak_, but most people don't say that one to my face. Then there's _Buddy_, _Pal_,_ Green Dude_, _Hey-can-I-borrow-some-cash?_ and _Gar_."

Raven bit her lip and smirked.

"I think I'll use the latter, but the one before that has its charm and appeal, too."

Gar laughed. "You're not so bad," he told her. "Even if you do dress kinda weird."

"Thanks," Raven told him dryly. "I really appreciate that."

He grinned at her. "Anytime."

Raven shook her head at him and turned, falling back to lean against the lockers. He did the same and they both turned their heads to look at each other.

"So, what's your name?"

"Rachel Roth, but nobody I actually _like_ calls me that."

Gar's eyebrows lifted and he nodded slowly.

"Oh? So . . . what do people you actually _like_ call you?"

"Well . . . back home there was the ever-popular _Freak_, _Creepy Chick_, _Spawn of Satan_, _Daughter of Evil_, and _Raven_."

Gar stared at her like he was trying to figure out if she was serious or not. Finally he nodded.

"Creative. I kinda like that 'Spawn of Satan' one myself, but I guess Raven's cool, too." His smile brightened. "Sooooo," he said, drawling out the word. "Where do you hail from, oh Princess of Darkness?"

Raven snorted and shrugged. "A small town about five hours from here. I just moved to Jump City yesterday, and now I live with my dear old dad and his fiancée."

"Don't sound so excited."

Raven rolled her eyes. "I didn't even know he existed until a few weeks ago," she said. "He's insanely rich, though, and his girlfriend's okay. She's an English teacher here, I guess."

Gar's eyes widened and he turned his body to face her.

"Your dad's not Trent Ryder, is he?"

Raven nodded slowly and Gar laughed.

"Nuh-uh! Dude, my dad's always eating lunch or dinner with your dad."

"You're serious?"

"As a heart attack! My dad's, like, the fifth richest man in the _world_, so he's always chatting it up with people like your dad. You know, they're both rich and everything. No offense, Raven, but your dad's kinda boring. And Ms. Halliwell is a ditz."

Raven smirked. "Yeah, none taken. So, does this mean I'll be seeing you around a lot on weekends?"

Gar shrugged and winked at her.

"Only if you're lucky."


	4. Twilight Zone

Edge of Awareness  
By: Lady DeathAngel  
Disclaimer: Still not mine.  
Warnings: more language  
A/N: On time for once! The story is definitely picking up speed now. This chapter we meet Speedy and Kid Flash and next chapter Robin makes his first appearance. So stay tuned and please review!

**Twilight Zone**

It turned out that Gar had a few classes with Raven. That was the good news. The bad news was that for her first class of the day, she was on her own. She wasn't too worried about it, or so she tried to convince herself. She wasn't a very good liar, though, and she must have nervously glanced at her schedule four or five times on the walk to the room. Gar had laughed.

"You're schedule hasn't changed since the last time you checked it. Twenty seconds ago."

She'd glared up at him and he'd chuckled holding his hands in front of his body.

"Not that I was counting." He grinned at her and shook his head. "You'll be fine," he assured her.

Raven didn't bother telling him that no, she would not be fine. She was a freak. She wasn't lying, making up all those names that she'd been called. Her slate could only be wiped so much and maybe here there wouldn't be rumors flying around about her dedication ceremony to Satan, but she still got weird looks from girls and guys alike. She wasn't willing to count her getting along with Gar as anything other than luck. She certainly wasn't walking with him to her class because of her own social skills. She had none.

Raven didn't know how to deal with boys who liked her and she was scared of what would happen with boys who didn't. She couldn't talk to girls about girly things and the ones who were cruel to her didn't warrant her attention. She rarely laughed and her smiles were smirks and sneers. She could count the number of times she'd cried in her life on two hands, and most of those breakdowns had been recent. She got mad and she beat the shit out of people. She'd never had a friend in her life until today, and she wasn't sure she'd count Gar as a _friend_. More like a kid who'd been intrigued by her and now refused to go away. She didn't know what he was hoping to get out of this, but she was sure he was in it for something.

As far as people went, unless someone was suicidal or mentally unstable, Raven had no experience at all. And so no, she wouldn't be fine. She'd be very far from fine.

But she didn't tell Gar that. She just stayed silent and when they got to her room she even let him put his hand on her shoulder for a moment. He smiled at her.

"Look, they may or may not chew you up and spit you out, but if you're anything like me I think you can handle it."

Raven folded her arms across her stomach and raised an eyebrow.

"And am I like you?"

He took his hand away and shrugged.

"Not that it's a good thing, but maybe. By the way," he added. "D'you mind being my 'get out of class early' card? We'll just tell all our teachers that I'm your student guide." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Raven shook her head and stuffed her hands in the pocket of her hoodie.

"I feel so used," she said, sighing. "Yeah, fine."

He grinned and started walking down the hall.

"Awesome! Remind me to thank you properly later!"

And then he was gone and Raven was left to face her English literature class alone. She frowned and took a deep breath before walking into the classroom behind a gaggle of girls in short shorts with identical haircuts. They all took seats in the middle of the room, flanked by boys Raven assumed to be members of some sports team or another. She didn't recognize the jerseys. Back home there had been football and baseball and that had pretty much been it. Maybe they played soccer?

She didn't bother thinking too much on it. She was already looking around the room for a seat in a dark corner.

"You're Miss Roth, I presume," a voice said, catching her before she could make a beeline for the empty back row.

She turned to face a male, tall and scrawny. She nodded.

"I'm Mr. Daniels. I teach this class."

She thought that might have been obvious, not only because he was the only teacher in the room, but because it clearly stated on her schedule that a Daniels, Kevin taught English literature in room 213. She didn't say anything, though. She just nodded.

"I want you to know that I'm not going to go easy on you. This is a tough class. I expect you to read what I tell you to read when I tell you to read it. I expect that the essays I assign will adhere to all MLA standards, which I'm sure you're familiar with. I also expect every one of my students to participate in discussions about chapters read; making it evident that they do know what's going on and have begun to analyze the novel."

He stared hard at Raven over a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and she blinked and nodded.

"That being said, we're beginning the term with Jane Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_. You'll need to acquire a copy by the end of the week."

He dismissed her just as the bell rang and she turned to see that most every seat in the class was filled. She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. There was one seat in the back next to a blonde who was hastily scrawling in her notebook. There was another seat toward the front behind a red-head who was smiling beatifically at Daniels and whose perfume Raven could smell where she was standing a few feet away.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen," Daniels said loudly, standing. "We've got a new student. Her name is Rachel Roth." He glanced over at Raven with a small smile. "Say 'hello,' Rachel."

Raven grimaced and coughed.

"Hi," she drawled uncomfortably.

Nearly everyone snickered and Daniels frowned at them before indicating that Raven take the seat next to the blonde. She made her way to the back while the teacher called role. She settled into the seat, grabbing her notebook and a pen before settling her messenger bag on the floor. The boy in front of her and the boy next to him twisted around.

"Hey," the one in front of her said.

She fought to keep the frown from her face and nodded at him. The one next to him grinned.

"Not very talkative, are you?"

Raven blinked.

"Um, not really."

The boy in front of her shrugged and smiled.

"Eh, it's all right. I can talk enough for the both of us. I'm Roy Harper and this loser next to me is Bart Allen."

The boy named Bart frowned at his friend.

"Hey!" he hissed. "I'm not a loser. I am totally cool."

Roy raised his eyebrows and then snorted.

"Right, okay."

"I am!" he insisted before looking at Raven. "I totally am."

Roy opened his mouth to retort, but Daniels had apparently finished taking his silent roll call and loudly announced that they were to open their books to chapter five. Bart spun around in his seat to grab his copy while Roy smiled at her.

"You can share with me," he said, waving the novel in front of her. She shrugged and watched as he straddled his seat and laid the book between them.

"Now," Daniels said. "Who can summarize the chapter for me? Miss Anders?"

The redhead that Raven had noticed earlier spoke in a slow, cultured tone and Raven tuned her out. She'd never been a fan of Jane Austen. Her stories were clichéd tales of love, requited and not-so-much, and she didn't go much for the soupy tales of the Eliza Bennets of the literary world. It was clear that Daniels worshiped the woman, and the redhead if the way he said, "Very _good_, Miss Anders," was any indication.

The minute Daniels turned to the board to begin writing down whatever he thought they needed to consider important, Bart turned in his seat again and made a face.

"This is so incredibly boring," he muttered. "I've already read this book, like, six billion times."

Raven raised an eyebrow at the exaggeration and watched as Roy shook his head.

"See? Definitely a loser."

Bart smirked.

"But you love me," he said. "And you wouldn't have me any other way."

The look on Roy's face was a cross between 'fond' and 'annoyed' and only made Bart smirk wider.

"Anyway," Roy finally said, rolling his eyes. "Since Bart's read it so many times, and since I'm just naturally that smart, we'll help you out in this class if you want."

Bart nodded.

"I know this book inside and out, backwards and forwards."

Daniels had turned back around and was reading a passage from the book. Bart turned in his seat again and Roy snorted. While the teacher droned on, Raven stared blankly at the page she was supposed to be reading and considered the two guys in front of her.

Roy was solidly built and beneath his black wife-beater he looked to be nothing but muscle. His hair was red, short, and his bangs framed his face and hung in his grey eyes. He looked, for all the world, like your typical bad boy and Raven cringed at the thought of the stir he would have made in her old town. Still, despite his stature, he had the features of a flirt. His eyes were bright and practically _glittered_, his lips were full and sensual, and his grin was all the arsenal he needed to charm any girl. Well, except Raven. But then, she wasn't any girl.

Bart, she noted, was the opposite of Roy in many ways. He was shorter than the red-head, and infinitely slimmer. The kid was painfully skinny but he looked healthy and the calf muscles that Raven could see emerging from the baggy legs of his shorts bulged in a way no normal calf muscle should. And those were just the physical differences. He had child-like qualities about him that made him endearing and she figured that most girls found him just as appealing as Roy. In fact, they were probably a devastating double act.

Raven thought that they were both what other girls would call 'hot' in their own ways and the part of her that was fairly normal didn't mind their attention at all. There were, however, other parts of her didn't quite know what to make of them and of their intentions. Daniels had stopped reading and was listening to that Anders girl give another answer to whatever question he'd asked. Bart and Roy were both looking at her again and she almost flushed under their gazes.

"So Rachel," Roy said, turning his girl-charmer grin on her. "Wanna be our new study partner?"

"Um . . ."

"Come on," Bart wheedled, blinking his russet-hued eyes at her pathetically. "You know you want to."

"Um . . ."

"Rachel Roth, would you please stop disrupting my class?" their teacher cut in with a glare at the trio in the back corner before turning to the blonde next to Raven. "Simms, assuming you could hear the question over the sound of your neighbors' banter, what do you think?"

The girl, Simms obviously being her last name, smirked in Raven's general direction and began a dissertation on the dastardly Darcy's behavior toward Miss Elizabeth Bennet. When Daniels was satisfied and turned to write on the whiteboard, Roy and Bart turned to her with raised eyebrows. She drummed her fingers on her desk and then sighed.

"Fine. But only if you call me 'Raven.'"

The two grinned.

"Done," they said together.

Bart turned around again and immediately began staring into space, tapping his pencil against his desk so fast it gave Raven a headache to watch. Roy sighed and flicked his friend in the wrist to make him stop. Bart grinned sheepishly and drummed his fingers instead.

"He's a little ADD," Roy told her with an eye roll.

Raven just stared at the smaller boy's fingers and nodded.

"Ah."


	5. Electric Blue

Edge of Awareness  
By: Lady DeathAngel  
Disclaimer: Still not mine.  
Warnings: language  
A/N: urgh, late again! Anyway, finally we meet Dick/Robin as well as Kory/Starfire (sorta) and Garth/Aqualad. I like this chapter quite a bit, actually. I've got one more chapter after this finished, but if I don't finish seven soon the regular updates may come to a halt, but I'll know for sure by next Friday. It's just a heads up of a sort. Also, please leave me a review if you're reading this! I'd like to know what you think. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Electric Blue**

Raven's last class of the day was the only one she felt comfortable in because it was the only one in which no one bothered trying to hide their aversion to her. Kory Anders, the redhead from her first period, made a valiant attempt to smile at her when she walked into the room, but Raven ignored it and headed straight for the empty seat in the back.

"I don't think so, Girly," a beefy looking guy told her with a glare.

She took a step back so that she could glare up at him and not at his chest. His hair was brown and curly and he had on a letter jacket. His hands were thrust deep into the pockets and he was standing protectively over the seat. She raised an eyebrow and made a big show of examining the desk around his considerably girth.

"Yeah, I don't see your name on it. That makes it fair game." She left off the 'so back the fuck off' that hung on the tip of her tongue.

A guy off to the side chuckled.

"Dude, lay off. She's quiet. She won't bother us."

She glanced off to her left and recognized the speaker. He had shoulder-length black hair and the darkest pair of eyes she'd ever seen. His name was Garth and she had fifth period art with him, Bart, and Gar. They'd told her he was pretty popular with everyone but only hung out with jocks and had dated at least half of the female population at San Paulo by his sophomore year.

"Roy likes to think he's a player," Bart said with a smirk. "But he's not pulling like Garth. That dude's an _Adonis_ of _Greek_ proportions. I'd do him."

Gar grimaced and Raven did a double-take, wondering if he was serious.

"Between you and Roy," Gar said with an eye roll. "You'd do the entire coast if anyone'd be up for it."

Raven regarded Bart with wide eyes.

"Horny, are you?"

Bart just winked at her.

"I'm a growing boy," he said. "It's only natural. And anyway, Garth is sex." He nudged Gar with a grin. "Even you'd do him if you didn't hate his guts."

Raven's quizzical look inspired story-time and she learned that Garth and Gar had been wrapped up in a rivalry since their freshman year. There was no real reason for it, apparently, except that they were fairly competitive with each other in classes, gym especially. Raven just shrugged because she didn't quite understand it. She wasn't terribly competitive. She was more intellectual and preferred reading to running and didn't care much for trying her best in anything that involved a lot of energy output.

Her gym class back home had been fairly uneventful anyway since most of the other girls shared her dislike of all things physical. Mostly she'd sat off to the side fielding off glares from the girls who were gossiping and turning the frumpy, baggy gym uniforms into midriff baring distractions for the boys who were trying to look macho and sexy. She was glad she could avoid P.E. here if for no other reason than that the west coast seemed to _breed_ athletes. Even Gar and Bart, who looked as un-athletic as Raven herself was, weren't completely useless on a sporting apparatus. Bart ran track, and was apparently very good at it, and Gar was flexible enough to keep up with most of the jocks, even if he didn't play an organized sport.

Garth was, according to Bart and Gar, a swimmer, and a damn good one. He was dressed casually in a collared shirt and jeans, and she noted that his own letter jacket was hung on the back of his seat. She took another look at Big and Beefy in front of her who snarled in her direction before settling into the seat in front of her. She sighed and set her messenger bag onto the desk, glancing over at Garth who was now busy flirting with some brunette who'd sauntered over.

Raven sat down at her desk and watched him out of the corner of her eye. Pulling out a notebook and pen she imagined the conversation. Garth was probably suave and charming, slick like an eel, and the girl was all smiles and giggles and boob jiggles. He'd say something witty in greeting and she'd laugh and say, "oh, Garth, you're so _funny_!" in a shrill voice. He'd say something even wittier and then the girl would comment on how weird Raven was and how she would never wear the color black _ever_. And Garth would grin and wink and tell her she'd look good in anything.

Raven made a face at her desktop and groaned quietly.

"Gag me," she muttered.

"What did you say?" Big and Beefy demanded, turning around with narrowed eyes.

She looked up and held her hands out in front of her body.

"Nothing. Just talking to myself. You know."

He very obviously did _not_ know and was going to let her know how much he didn't like not knowing when there was a ruckus at the front of the classroom. He spun around and Raven lifted her eyes to watch as a tallish, thin boy with black hair spiked to perfection pressed a kiss to Kory Anders' pouty pink lips.

"Get a room!" someone yelled and there were chuckles all around as the boy just lifted his middle finger high into the air.

They kissed for another ten seconds before parting. Kory simpered something that Raven couldn't hear and the guy chuckled, low and deep. Then he started walking toward the back corner of the room. The brunette Garth was chatting up hopped off his desk and nodded at the dark-haired guy.

"Hey, Dick," she said in a soft, husky voice.

"Hey, Mary," he said with a grin.

She nodded at him, winked at Garth, and went to sit beside Kory. Raven watched all this from her desk and tucked her hair behind her eyes as he drew closer. God, he looked so familiar. She couldn't quite place it, though, and she knew that if she'd _ever_ seen a guy this gorgeous back home she'd remember it. He knocked knuckles with Garth and the guy in front of her whose name was Matt, and glanced at Raven.

She very audibly gasped at the sight of his eyes and turned her head to the side, gazing intently out of the window, willing herself to disappear. She _did_ know him and she doubted he'd recognize her, but there was always the off-chance that he might and if he _did_ . . .

"Who's the new girl?" Dick asked.

"Dunno," Matt answered. "She just decided to sit back here."

Dick didn't say anything else about her and immediately and he, Matt, and Garth began to engage in Jock Talk, none of which Raven could quite catch and some of it (mostly the parts about cheerleaders) she didn't quite want to. She was happy when the bell finally rang and she could stop gazing out the window and turn to the front of the class. There was a frazzled looking woman at the front holding a clipboard to her chest.

"Mrs. Lourdes won't be here today," she said. "So you all have a study period. I'll be up here if you have any questions and please try and keep it down, okay?"

There were few murmurs of assent and more whoops of delight as students turned to their neighbors and began to talk rather loudly. Raven rapped her knuckles on the top of her desk in annoyance. She'd only been at the school for one day. She didn't _have_ anything to occupy her time in a study hall. She could always draw. Her art teacher had told her it would be easy to catch up on points so long as she did one sketch a week, but Raven wasn't much for art. She could barely draw stick figures that were discernible as sticks.

She was pulling out a notebook to stare absently at and possibly doodle in when a note landed on the top of her desk. She frowned at it and flicked it to the floor.

"That was rude," Dick said.

She glanced to the side to see him, chin nestled into his palm and elbow perpendicular to the desk, staring at her. She swallowed hard and shrugged.

"What if whoever sent it had something nice to say?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and bent at the waist to pick up the piece of paper. She unfolded it and showed it to him.

"'You are a freak,'" he read, looking up at her with a grin. "Okay, so I was wrong."

She sighed and crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this conversation?" she asked, wondering why the hell he was even _looking_ at her.

"Do I know you?" he finally asked, still staring.

She glanced away and shook her head.

"I doubt it."

He straightened and sighed.

"You just look so familiar I thought maybe I'd met you before."

She fixed her gaze on the bridge of his nose to give the illusion of staring at him without actually doing so.

"Well, this is only my second day in Jump City."

He made a 'hmm' noise in the back of his throat and against her will, her eyes met his. He lifted an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth quirked upward.

"Ever live in Gotham?"

The look on his face and the sound of his voice indicated he didn't honestly think she had, and there was no way she was telling him that for two weeks she had, in fact, called Gotham home. She wasn't telling him that she knew exactly who he was, exactly _what_ he was, or that she still dreamed about him, sometimes, either. Instead she twisted her lips into what she _hoped_ was an apologetic smile and shook her head again.

"Too bad," he said. "You'd have fit in there," he added softly.

"If you're done flirting," Garth said loudly, cutting into their conversation. "Kory's paging you."

Kory Anders was, indeed, waving Dick over, but her steely green eyes were settled on Raven, glaring at the dark-haired girl. Raven fought the urge to flip her off and watched, instead, as Dick got up and jogged over to her. She felt Garth's eyes on her and raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know," he said conversationally. "He does shit like this all the time."

She frowned at him and thrust her hands into her hoodie pocket.

"Does what?"

Garth just smiled.

"Look, he'll be nice because that's who he is. Richard Grayson, patron saint of lost causes. Just don't take it personally. And don't even think about falling for him. Kory and Dick have been together since way before you came around, and if you think of trying to change that, things are gonna be way harder for you than they already are."

Raven wasn't much for nervous lip-biting or looking bashful, so she settled for lifting her eyebrows, her mouth settling into rueful lines.

"Patron saint of lost causes? Sounds catchy." She shrugged and leaned back in her desk.

Garth rolled his eyes and made to turn in his desk. The sound of Raven calling his name stopped him and he turned to face her, eyebrows raised.

"I've never loved anyone in my life," she told him. "And I don't plan on starting any time soon, least of all with someone who thinks I'm a charity case, so don't worry about it."

Garth nodded and the look he gave her was appreciative, but Raven didn't care. She just turned her gaze back down to her blank sheet of lined paper and then reached up to pull her hood over her head. She pulled back into it and forced herself not to think about Dick Grayson's electric blue eyes and the first time she ever saw them.


End file.
